The protestors shouted slogans against S Sumanth, Managing Director of MESCOM, and demanded him to confront them.
False case
When Mr.Sumanth appeared before the protestors, Vijay Hegde, State Vice-President, KRRS, demanded an answer from Mr. Sumanth as to why false police cases have been registered against farmers by MESCOM officials. Citing the case of farmer Roopesh Rai from Kadaba who was put behind bars for four days due to the alleged involvement of MESCOM official Sheshappa Poojary, Mr. Hegde lambasted the company MD for being irresponsible and insensitive towards the problems of the farmers.
Mr. Sumanth, after a long argument with the farmer representatives, finally agreed to order an enquiry against the official concerned, report of which would be submitted to him within 24 hours.
Power supply
Stating that farmers were happy with the power supply the district would earlier receive from Jog, Mr. Hegde said that power from Jog has now been diverted to Shimoga, Hasan and Bangalore and the DK district has been deprived of adequate power supply. MESCOM's policies have been responsible for this situation, he said and asked the MD to take steps to resume electricity supply from Jog to DK and Udupi districts. Mr. Sumanth on the other hand said that the decision to divert power supply from Jog to Bangalore and other parts of the state had been taken long back and that he cannot do anything in this regard. The farmers however maintained that they oppose the UPCL power project as it is “illegal”.
Farmers present in the protest also alleged MESCOM officials of depriving them of electricity supply, disconnecting power supply to their pumpsets, load shedding at the time of examinations besides others. Mr. Sumanth assured them that he will consider each of their demands and keep load shedding in the district to the minimal.
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